Most of the data from the mission were of good quality, and Félicette survived the flight but was euthanised two months later for the examination of her brain.

Postage stamps worldwide commemorated her, and a statue with her likeness is on display at the International Space University.

On 14 June 1949, a U.S. suborbital flight carried the first mammal into space, a Rhesus monkey named Albert II.

On 3 November 1957, the Soviet Union launched Laika, a stray dog found on the streets of Moscow, into space on Sputnik 2.

[4][5] On 31 January 1961, as part of Project Mercury, the chimpanzee Ham became the first hominid launched into space for a suborbital flight.

[6] On 29 November 1961, Enos became the second chimpanzee launched into space, and third hominid after cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, to achieve Earth orbit.

[12] On 18 October 1963 at 8:09 am, C 341 was launched into space from the Centre interarmées d'essais d'engins spéciaux site in Algeria.

[24] The nose cone separated from the rocket before reaching a height of 152 kilometres (94 miles) and the cat was subjected to five minutes of weightlessness.

The turbulent reentry caused her heart rate to rise, but poor data made it difficult to analyze.

The radio transponder stopped working on the launch pad, which created difficulties in finding the rocket.

In 1997, postage stamps commemorating Félicette and other animals in space were issued in Chad, again using the name Félix.

[33][35][36] The UPS student astronomy club at Université Toulouse III will name its future astronomical observatory in honor of Félicette.

[37][38] While some non-human animals which traveled in space were celebrated as heroes—the chimpanzee Ham was buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico, U.S., and the Soviet dog Laika has a bronze monument at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, near Star City in Russia—more than 50 years after her mission there was no monument for Félicette.

Then, in 2017 a crowdfunding campaign was started by Matthew Serge Guy to erect a bronze statue of Félicette to commemorate her contribution to science.

[39] The preliminary design depicted a cat on top of the Earth, and a plaque featuring the names of significant donors was to be included.

[33][40][41] In April 2019, Guy announced that the statue was to be located in Eastern France at the International Space University.

[42] The statue was unveiled on 18 December 2019, as a part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the University's Master of Space Studies program.

It is 1.5-metre (5 ft) tall and depicts Félicette "perched atop Earth, gazing up toward the skies she once traveled".